Traditional art and sketching

Peruse our Sketching from the Imagination series, start your own sketch journal, or try your hand at clay sculpting! If you’re a complete beginner looking for a new hobby, or even an experienced artist looking for inspiration and workflow insights, our traditional art and sketching resources have plenty to offer!

3D digital art

Covering a wide variety of software and approaches, our books, magazines, and eBooks are there to offer you the support and motivation you need. Whether you want to sculpt a monster in ZBrush or create a stylized character in 3ds Max, take a look at our range to start your next project!

3D Art - Modelling, Digital and Game Art

Learn how to make a fun steampunk heroine with the guidance of skilled character artist Roumen Filipov, with 3D model and texture assets included! This eBook covers an entire character creation workflow, from modeling organic and hard surfaces in ZBrush, to topology and UVing with 3ds Max, to posing and rendering the final model. Discover useful techniques that’ll add life to your characters, from creating skin pores to simple posing with the free Super Simple Rig. (ZBrush, 3ds Max with V-Ray, and Photoshop are required for this project.)

John A. Martini covers the entire process of developing a stunning photoreal scene, from pre-viz and setting up the 3ds Max physical camera, through modeling in Maya, creating objects in 3ds Max, texturing and shading, and finally culminating with in-depth tuition for lighting and rendering the final scene. Featured software includes: 3ds Max, Maya, V-Ray, Photoshop, ZBrush, and NUKE.

Luciano Iurino reveals the key to creating realistic textures in a three-chapter e-book guide dedicated to shaders. Focusing on textures and lighting in 3ds Max, discover how to create the perfect textured finish to your models in this three-chapter e-book guide. Luciano’s lessons will teach you how to create the great results on both the free model provided, which you can also apply to your own assets.

This month, it is time to get started on some exciting new projects! Learn how to create a strong basis for your images with previz guidance to help you develop photoreal scenes and classic cars. You can also find out how to turn your photographs into perfect tillable textures with our guide to creating a texture library.

To kick-start another year of fantastic 3D creations, we have loads of inspiring content to get you thinking. Why not begin 2014 by developing your own texture library with Scott Davis, or hone your prop-sculpting skills with Joseph Harford?

Andrew Hickinbottom has notoriously kept his character-creation secrets close to his chest. He reveals all in this helpful project breakdown of his popular stylized character, Olivia. Discover how he tackles modeling, texturing, lighting, and even how he creates convincing backgrounds to sell his characters in the money shot!

This month, the 3dcreative habitat is a hub of biodiversity populated by frogs, lizard monsters, goblins, mermaids and even a few humans. Character designers will be in their element, as we have plenty of advice to help you develop your own concepts - be they photoreal, cartoon or completely imaginary!

Creating cartoon animals is a great starting point for anyone who is thinking about having a go at 3D. Cartoon animals are usually made up of shapes and forms that are fairly simple to model, and since realism is not the focus of this kind of work, it gives you an opportunity to be expressive and experimental at all points of the creative process. In this eBook the artists will be talking you through how to approach this task, firstly by concentrating on how to create your idea, but then moving on to the modeling, texturing and post-production. Each chapter provides you with an opportunity to see into the workflow of these outstanding industry professionals and learn valuable techniques you can use in your own workflow.

Even some of the most modern forms of art are influenced by traditional techniques, methods and styles. With the arrival of ZBrush came an opportunity to put into practice many of the techniques that were used in classical sculpture by sculptors from some of the most recognizable periods in world history. In this tutorial series Rafael Ghencev will dissect the history of Greek and Roman sculpture and show you how to create an image in that style. Not only will Rafael talk you through the sculpting, but will also show how to texture and present your sculpt in a classical style. This series will also give some great anatomy tips, and provide you with some great tricks to help you present your sculpts.

In this fascinating eBook you will be guided through the creation of a complete spaceship, from concept to a complete, textured model. We begin the series in Photoshop, using some of its excellent features to help create a concept, a vital process for anyone hoping to come up with an original design. That design is then developed in 3D, following a logical and practical approach. You will be shown how to model a low poly base model which you can then develop into a high-poly version and unwrap and texture. This series is filled with all the tips and help you will need to start creating your own cool 3D spaceships.

Welcome to the Introduction to V-Ray (for 3ds Max) - Parisienne Apartment eBook tutorial series which will cover all the key parameters of V-Ray: global illumination, materials, lighting and more. We will look in-depth at each setting - how it works, what repercussions it has - and we will also take a peek at some of the special features that V-Ray has to offer. If you've ever had any doubts about how to get into V-Ray, or you simply would just like to know a little more about a particular section of the software, this eBook series is for you!

This five part series will focus on the topic of setting up a variety of lighting rigs that reflect natural lighting at different times of the day and manmade interior lighting. Each of the chapters will use the same base scene as a starting point, and will show a step by step guide to finding a lighting and rendering solution that best reflects the desired lighting situation.
The tutorials will explain the type of lights used and how to set up the parameters along with talking about the different methods of tackling the subject. The manipulation of textures may also be covered in order to turn a daylight scene into night scene for example. The artists will also look at some useful post production techniques in Photoshop in order to enhance a final still.

Lighting La Ruelle is an outdoor illumination eBook that focuses on lighting a base scene under very different atmospheric conditions. The tutorial covers how to build a light rig and set up the renderer to portray an environment, which includes fog/mist, sunrise/sunset, moonlight, midday sun and overcast.